Johanna Garth is the author of The Persephone Campbell Series; a modern take on the myth of Hades and Persephone. Johanna lives in McLean, Virginia with her husband and two children.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Hide and Go Seek

I'm home!

After three weeks journeying through Southeast Asia, home feels like the most miraculous place in the world. Flowers are blooming, the sun is, well, this is Oregon so not exactly shining, but still it's home.

My world will be complete as soon as I can find all the items I took it upon myself to hide before I left.

Let me explain.

We live in a neighborhood that burglars treat like a box of chocolates. Yes, we have an alarm system and yes, I stopped the mail, but still, three weeks is a long time. Right before we were scheduled to leave a house across the street was burgled. Two weeks before that I'd listened to the laundry list of things stolen from another friend's house. And so, like any other not entirely rational person, I went on a hiding rampage.

Which is all well and good, except the problem with hiding things is when you come home you have to remember where you hid them.

Some things, the bigger items I snatched and grabbed in my initial hiding frenzy, were easy to find. Some things I didn't realize I was missing until I went to use them. My check book, for example was discovered underneath a pile of old Easter grass in the attic.

My jewelry was not at the bottom of the Costco-sized box of cereal bars where I thought I'd left it. Nor was it behind the books in my daughter's room or underneath the dumbwaiter. I finally located it at the bottom of a pile of sleeping bags.

I know you're thinking I'm giving away my best hiding places, but don't worry. I like to keep my nonexistent (knock-on-wood) burglars on their toes so I hide things in different places every time we go away.

Fortunately, I was able to uncover my laptop (underneath the long neglected Disney princess dress-up gowns in the dress-up box which reminds me I need to weed through those).

The location of my spare car key is still a mystery. I may give up looking for it for awhile and let it be a surprise/reminder of our vacation....which of course, I can't wait to write about.

And I will!

But first I need to download my pictures and in order to do that I have to find the camera cable. It was nonsensically hidden because you've heard of the thriving black market for outdated USB camera cables, right? No??

I think it's back to the attic for me. There are some boxes of uninvestigated kid art that seem like prime hiding places.

21 comments:

Oh, I know what you mean! I went away for a few days, and before I left I hid my valuables in my apartment. But when I came back I had to look through everything three times before I finally found what I'd hidden, though I couldn't find my laundry money at first (stash of quarters); for a moment I was convinced that someone had broken in and stolen my laundry money, but then I couldn't figure out why they would steal the quarters but leave the TV and laptop.

I got tired of losing things to 'safe places' when I hid them, so I started making an effort to make a list and emailing it to myself (Because I couldn't keep track of a paper list to save my life). It has saved me countless hours of frustration and searching. Now if I could only get the husband to remember where he put things when he swears they are in the same place he always puts them, which could be keys in t he fridge for all I know.

Lol, great post and nice to meet you Johanna. If it makes you feel any better my mum arranged an Easter egg hunt around her garden for my kids - 30 went out and only 26 came back... Just 2 hours later she couldn't remember where the last couple were hidden!

I don't suppose you found any hamsters hidden away behind those couch cushions!

Your hidey-hole scavenger hunt is hilarious, Johanna! Really!

I can't say burglars round these parts would be too interested in the cereal bars when there's all that broccoli in the freezer for the taking. I'd be lucky, I fear, to come home to a house still standing if some you-know-what broke in. HOW do you do it?!